"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase," is how Martin Luther King Jr. described it. Faith is a simple, five letter word, yet it's the most important thing we can have in life. It affects everything we say, think, and do in our everyday lives. There are two kinds of faith: Big Faith and Little Faith. Big Faith is believing in things like a Supreme Being, or believing in love; you can't see either one, yet if you believe that they exist then you have Big Faith. Little Faith is found in small, everything day things we do, and sometimes they're so small we don't even realize it; one example would be starting your car. When you sit down in the driver's seat and insert your key into the ignition, you have faith that the car will start like it's supposed too. It may seem silly to some, but that is still faith.

An example of Big Faith is when my family moved down here eight years ago. When we came down here my dad didn't have any job prospects, or any interviews lined up, but we believed that God would provide the opportunities. We came down here on a Thursday and on a Friday my dad went to apply for a job at Park's Rental. They weren't hiring at the time, but when they saw his credentials they hired him on the spot. Not only was he hired, but he was hired as the manager, and he started working Monday. It took a big leap of faith to move down here not knowing when, or if, my dad would be able to find a job, but because we had faith, he found work quickly.

Although faith is what guides our lives, sometimes it doesn't always work. Generally, I'm a pretty faith-filled individual, so when I went for my first job interview, I had faith I would be hired. A week later, I got a call from the company, and I found out that I didn't get hired. Sometimes we have faith in things, but they don't work out and it quickly turns into disappointment. In trying times I have to remind myself that without faith, life would look much more depressing without something to cling to in those times of trouble.

Two of my favorite stories of faith are found in the bible: the story of Ruth and the story of Peter the disciple. Ruth has to be one of the bravest people in the bible: to leave her family, friends and everything she's ever know to take care of her mother-in-law, and so soon after she lost her husband. Even when her sister-is-law chooses to go back to her family, Ruth sticks with Naomi and shows a devotion to her that not many people today would have towards their mother-in-law. I'm not even sure that I would be able to leave everything I've ever known to go back with someone like a mother-in-law. I don't have a mother-in-law, but I have a boyfriend. I'm gonna be honest: if I ever got married to him one day and he died, along with his father, leaving just me and his mother, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't wanna leave my family and friends just to go with her back to her hometown and take care of her. So for Ruth to be able to do that shows a great amount of faith.

Another extraordinary story is that of Peter, one of the disciples of Jesus. Some of the followers of Jesus were just sitting out in a boat when suddenly they looked up and they saw Jesus walking towards them…on top of the water! Now here's the interesting part, Peter decides to jump out of the boat and walked over to Jesus. Not only does he attempt walking on water, but he actually does it—until he starts to doubt, and consequently, he starts to sink. Now, I don't know if Peter could swim or not, but I always assumed he couldn't because he sunk under the water instead of trying to swim. I don't know, it may have just been that he was wearing heavy clothes or something. Either way, I think is amazing that he had such big faith that he would jump overboard to go and meet Jesus out on the water. As someone who can't swim, I know I wouldn't be able to do that. I'd be too scared of drowning to take that big a leap of faith. Peter reminds me that faith really can cause miracles, such as walking on top of water. There are many other great stories of faith in the Bible, such as when David killed the giant Goliath, when Daniel was thrown into the lion's den, and when Queen Ester walked into the King's Court ever though he hadn't summoned her, so she could stop the genocide of her people, but these were the first two that stuck out in my mind.

Faith is the center of every religion, so naturally, it must be important to our happiness and well-being as humans. Recent research even claims that people who have faith in a God are happier than Agnostics or Atheists. Faith is so important to believers of any religion; the Bible even says that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can move mountains. Some may write of such beliefs in a God as frivolous, but it takes a great amount of courage to believe in something that you can't see. The famous historian Voltaire even said, "Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe."

Some people say that faith isn't really important, but it's impossible to live without faith in something. Life would look pretty bleak and miserable if we didn't have faith in anything. Faith is something you can't live without, and even when we try, we find that we can't do simple day-to-day things without it. As human beings, we thrive in an environment where we know that some things are beyond our control, and therefore, we don't have to do everything perfectly. As Emmanuel Teney put it, "As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit."

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